The present invention relates to a lever element, particularly a parking brake control lever for motor vehicles.
As is known, levers for the use specified are currently provided in sturdy printed sheet metal, generally with U-shaped cross section, and include a retention device with a tooth, spring biased to engage a notched sector, disengageable by means of a kinematism comprising a pushbutton arranged at the end of the lever handgrip. Currently, in motor vehicles, for cost related, weight related, functional and aesthetic reasons, there is a trend towards the replacement of most of the on board equipment and fittings traditionally made of metal with similar equipment and fittings made of plastic material.
Within the scope of this technological updating, some traditionally metallic elements can be made of plastic material without particular difficulty, others instead pose remarkable production problems which are not easy to solve.
In the case of the parking brake control lever, it is obvious that the structure of the conventional metallic levers cannot be reproduced in plastic material, since, due to the significant difference of the mechanical resistance of steel with respect to that of all polymeric materials, the lever, for obtaining equal resistance and safety, would assume unacceptable overall dimensions.